


Pictureframes

by Sketchy_Vore



Series: Non-vore oneshots [1]
Category: Underfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Frisk is scared to forget faces, Gift Giving, Monster family is best (but again awkward) family, No vore in this one, Other, Photography, Sans is a good (but awkward) dad, Teens and up is for PG13 language, post trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 12:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sketchy_Vore/pseuds/Sketchy_Vore
Summary: We all have our ways to deal with the knowledge that everyone we love will die one day. Frisk is struggling to cope in their way, but luckily Sans comes to the rescue.





	Pictureframes

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little venting fic, since I’m trying to process the passing of my grandfather (and godfather). I hope you can enjoy it as a cute little thing.
> 
> This takes place in the same Underfell as from the story ‘Thermostat’, but on the surface. I have a whole story for this Underfell version of mine, and I fear I won’t be able to write it, but I’ll do my best to explain the situation.
> 
> Don't kill me if the quality is a little lower than usual, I wrote most of this as a distraction the day he died.

Frisk was acting…strange. It was worrying most of us, and not all of us for the right reasons.

They had been popping up with their phone everywhere. Surprising us while we were trying to relax or do domestic things, snapping pictures. Startling Toriel when she trying to bake, almost getting themself in danger when Paps was training, disturbing Undyne and Alphys when they were trying to ‘get a bit softer’ together. Even I had caught them sneaking up on me when I wasn’t really taking a nap.

It made the others uneasy. Pictures are a source of knowledge, a way to spy on others and get visible evidence. Of how someone looked, weaknesses, blackmail. Undyne liked the kid, she really did, but the fear of betrayal had literally been carved into her over the years. Most of us were sure the kid meant no harm, but they were a kid. We thought they were gullible, they didn’t think too much about how their actions could harm us. For all we know someone had asked them to show what we looked like so people would be less scared, and instead the pictures were used to get any information they could.

I knew my kid wasn’t stupid, even if they were desperate to get the humans to like us quicker. And then there were those  _ looks _ . Whenever someone would scowl at them or tried to hide their face from the camera, their face would just shift into something… The others knew something was wrong, but couldn’t quite identify it. Empathy had been beaten out of most of us from a young age.

I had been able to tell them exactly what it was when they asked. The kid had lived with just me for months. I knew what their disappointment and shame and helplessness looked like. And honestly, it scared me.

It all came to a conclusion when I walked past their room and heard sobbing inside. Of course, I knocked softly on the door.

“kiddo? everything okay?”

I could hear a little gasp and shuffling, and what sounded like stuff being rapidly shoved around on their little desk. I wanted to wait for permission to enter the room at first. I had been doing a bit of research into raising human kids since coming to the surface, and it had said it was a better way to gain your kid’s trust.

That is until I heard something metal clanging against the floor. I had done a bit of research into raising human kids, and some of the things I read about troubled children…

Panic suddenly surging into my chest, I threw the door open. Frisk’s startled face turned towards me at the sound. Instinctively they threw their tiny body over part of the desk and an open drawer, trying to hide the paper they had tried to shove into it. No, wait, not just paper. They were images. Pictures?

I took a deep breath to calm down, reminding myself the kid didn’t just act like that if they did something wrong. They always acted scared like that, whether they had broken a plate or were doing their homework. A remnant of their previous living situation no doubt.

_ fucking bastards that’s exactly how you turn your kid into an easy exp targe- _

I quickly squished the brief flash of anger down, schooling my expression into something more calm and curious as I walked over.

My suspicions that what they were doing probably wasn’t bad was strengthened a bit as their cheeks turned slightly red and their eyes showed nervousness instead of fear. Either embarrassment or shame, I couldn’t read accurately with how they were hiding most of their face inside their arms.

Now I also saw several other things on their desk. Glue, scotch tape, colorful paper, pieces of a cereal box, the thing I heard fall onto the floor turned out to be scissors. I picked them up slowly, eyes roaming over the pictures on their desk.

They were of us. Several black and white pictures printed on normal paper. Looked rather cheap honestly. I could recognize Papyrus and Undyne’s scowls, Toriel’s stern eyes, and a lab coat pulled up high over her face by yellow clawed hands that could only be Alphys’s. Most of the pictures were kinda blurry. Except mine, which was just me with my eyes closed and my drooling mouth wide open. There were several of each, all with anyone of our family trying to avoid documentation. Except Flowey, who was grinning wide as he showed off his shiny, regrowing petals.

“wow kiddo.” I drawled in a low, amused voice. “ya got quite the collection there. what’s all this mess about?”

I was instantly drawn out of my amusement by a little sob. I turned my startled look to the kid to see tears starting up as a look of helplessness crossed their face.

“sweetheart?”

I regretted saying anything, the kid shriveling up with a shudder. The final blow came as they looked at the pictures again, and started bawling with their hands slamming over their face.

“I tried. I really really tried. But none of- none of them ca-came out right. ”

I quickly swooped in, picking their small form up easily and looking for a place to sit until they calmed down. Their chair was far too small for me, even if it was big enough for an adult human, I really didn’t feel like sitting on the floor for too long, so that left the bed.

I shuffled over slowly as the kid mewled and sat down. The springs creaked loudly in protest, having been made for a child, not a giant monster.

“ssssssh, it’s okay, it’s okay. it’s gonna be alright.” I tried to soothe in a low voice as I dragged the biggest pillow on the bed into my lap. Once I was sure it would be comfortable enough for them I sat them down.

They turned around to face my chest and burrowed their face in quickly, grasping at my sweater. Nothing unusual if they  _ wanted _ to be comforted, so that was a relief at least. But something about the gesture was so… desperate. Their fingers were really digging in, as if next to the sweater they were also trying to get a hold of the edges of my ribs. Kinda uncomfortable actually. I just awkwardly rubbed their back and mumbled some more comfort, trusting that one article that this was a perfectly fine way to soothe young children.

“sweetheart, what happened? what’s this all about?” I eventually dared to ask once their sounds had gotten a bit softer.

The kid shook their head.

“S’stupid. I’m just stupid.”

I sighed heavily.

“sweetie, you’ve done more things that are stupid, by monster standards. but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some logic to your madness. and  _ you’re _ not stupid, not by any means.”

Frisk was silent for a long time, simply sniveling. And I tried to wait patiently. For a few minutes at least. I quieted my frustration with deep breaths.

“please sweetheart, won’t you tell me what’s wrong? i don’t care if it’s stupid, i just want to help.”

They stayed still for a bit longer, their face pressed against me. I could feel their body tense and deflate a few times, so I knew they were at least trying to gather the courage to tell me. I waited, praying for all the patience I could muster.

Eventually, they started to rub their face against me, smearing all their disgusting face fluids off onto my clothes (not that I cared that much) and turned their head to the side, still leaning against me and staring off to the side.

“Remember when A-Asgore… remember when I th-thought you w-where…?” They tried to start. From this angle, I finally notice that tiny vial with a tiny bit of ash hanging against their chest.

_ Alphy’s hands shook as she pressed the tiny glass bottle into Frisk’s hands. “Here, A-A-Asgore forbade e-everyone to m-m-move his dust. B-but Silvy got a p-p-pinch. I know how imp-p-portant reliqu-qui-quae are to humans. And you k-know we spread a monster’s d-d-dust on the things they l-loved. And I’m a-absolu-lutely sure that if there is s-someone he loved, it’s y-y-you.” _

Ah yes, that time Asgore came after my life, tired of waiting for someone else to kill the human and hearing I was harboring the enemy. That time Frisk thought I got incinerated. Back then it had seemed like a good idea to throw the old goat’s off my kid’s trail and give them a reason to pass the barrier. Boy did that idea backfire in the most spectacular way.

I suppressed a chuckle, I thought it was silly they still had the remains of my old jacket. But on some bad days, it brought them comfort to crawl into bed with me as they clutched the vial of ‘dust’.

Come to think of it, that way they were digging their fingers between my ribs, they did that when they were scared I could disappear without them even noticing it if they were just holding onto the cloth. I sobered up quite a bit more.

“yeah, I remember that babybones.”

Frisk’s lip trembled as they reached into their pocket and fished out their phone, shifting through its content. Having found what they needed, they held it up to me.

“T-this was a-all I had…t-to remember you.”

I slowly took the device and looked to see my own half-assed grimace staring back at me.

Oh, I remembered that as well. Frisk had gotten home late that night. There had been a few resets, but each of them was late into the night and they just wouldn’t return as the clock ticked past midnight. I didn’t know where they were, what they were going through, or if I had to come save them from an especially ruthless monster. Needless to say, I was past my patience and crazy with worry (even if I wouldn’t outright admit it back then) when they got home. One of the first times I learned they needed to be handled with much gentler kid gloves.

I still wasn’t in the best mood the next morning, but I had asked the kid for their phone and put in my contact, picture taken on the spot and everything.

“I…I was so scared I’d f-forget your face. S-sans, I don’t want to forget your faces.”

The note of panic and desperation climbed a bit higher into their face again, prompting me to make more soothing noises.

“ssssh, it’s alright sweetheart, i’m not going anywhere. none of us is going anywhere soon.”

“We didn’t expect Asgore either.” They blurted out.

That gave me pause. My… supposed death had come quite suddenly and out of nowhere. Humans did love their momentos. Monsters tried to get rid of items that caused grief as soon as possible, so they wouldn’t dwell on something that could be used as a weakness. Even things covered in a loved one’s dust were quickly locked away to hide.

But humans took much more time to grieve. They actually liked to keep around things that made them cry, because those things also reminded them of happier times. It was their way of respecting the dead. Once upon a time forgetting someone’s face was a loved one’s biggest fear… until pictures.

I sighed, tapping out of my contact info and opening up the camera.

“hey, frisk?“

Their eyes fell on me first, and at a little head movement from me to their phone. I opened the camera that was facing us.

“can you gimme a big smile?”

They stilled for a moment, figuring out what I was doing. Instantly the life returned to their eyes and they scrubbed at them. The smile they gave was watery, but brilliant all the same. I gave the best smile my god awful mug could manage, pulling them snug against my side.

“say cheddar.” I said in my best sing-song voice, making Frisk’s smile stretch just a little inch wider and their eyes crinkle in mirth. I snapped the pick, letting the camera play a recording of an old fashioned shutter. I gave the device back for them to look at. They looked absolutely ecstatic and relieved, grinning wide even if the image made them rub at their eyes self-consciously.

Oh no, I was not leaving before I got a happier face

“hmmm, not bad, but could be better. wanna take another?”

The kid’s face lit up like the sun in the midday sky.

Even if I was a bit nervous about getting documented doing such… embarrassing things, we took dozens of photos. Smiles, hugs, silly faces, at one point Frisk even cut a few props from their colorful paper like stars and fancy rainbow mustaches. I could feel a blush on my own face at some of the pictures, but Frisk just looked so much better and happier I stopped caring. After a while, they seemed to be all played out though and skipped over to their desk to get some money and their Librarby card, insisting to get the photos printed out.

They found their little pouch of G rather easily, but after some rummaging through their old printed photos, they let out a censored version of a curse and dove into their drawer. This gave me some time to look over everything in their desk. There were the little props they cut out for our photo session, but next to that there was a whole collection of hand-cut little stars and hearts and some kind of blobs I wasn’t sure about. Some of said decorations were stuck to…whatever the kid had tried to make out of their cereal box.

It looked like a square with a window cut out, and another square of roughly the same size with a weird flap taped to the back. I picked it up curiously, careful not to break anything, yet one of the stars still fell off. I glanced at the kid quickly to make sure they were still preoccupied with their search for their Librarby card.

“say, sweetheart, what did you make here?”

They glanced up for just a moment to see what I meant before going back to looking, only to lift their head back up in surprise.

“Don’t… don't monsters use picture frames?”

Easy enough word, but I shook my head. I didn’t know whether the kid was trying to look scandalized or sad, ‘t was a weird mix between the two really. They eventually reached out and took it from my hands, showing as they spoke.

“We humans use them to place pictures of people and moments that make us happy around the house and protect them. Look, you take the picture,” (my soul fluttered as they instantly picked up one of my ‘sleeping’ pictures), ”put it against the back… place the frame in front in a nice way so you can see the picture… then you prop it up with support flap… and, tadah!”

The ‘support flap’ held up for a full 3 seconds after they pulled back their hands before it gave out and the frame fell with a soft ‘poff’. I could see the kid deflate from the corner of my eye the very next second. Speaking of the corner of my eye.

“well,” I said slowly, pulling the card from the desk. “why don’t you go out and get those pictures printed so we can put it somewhere nice?”

This seemed to cheer them up again as they gave a timid smile.

“Okay!” And with that, they were out the room, down the stairs, and slammed the front door. Heh, probably got that from Paps.

Meanwhile, I took a deep breath, cracked my knuckles, and steeled my resolve. I had some shit to do.

 

* * *

I thumbed through my pictures happily. It had been so hard to pick a few, but I didn’t have that much gold after paying for the first set. Nonetheless, I absolutely wanted one picture in color, even if it was a little bit more expensive. The monster at the front desk had found it really strange, just like the first time. But when she had seen me trembling with excitement like a Temmie on sugar when asking about a colored picture, she had asked me for the black-and-white price with a hand wave and a ‘get out before I change my mind’.

Strangely enough, though, it took a tiny bit longer to print my pictures. First the Librarbian got a phone call and decided to go whisper with a few of the patrons. I waited patiently. Then a bunch of the monsters inside insisted on a little chat. A few even asked my opinion on the newly added human literature, or which book would be a good introduction for their kids to learn about what humans were like. The printer also took a tiny bit longer to get started, the Loox that came to repair it switching between apologies, a chat, and some softcore cursing. But in the end, I did get what I wanted.

I pressed the bundle to my chest with a wide smile, all a bunch of happy pictures of me and my da-Sans…dad. The one on top being the one I picked to be in color: That very first picture we took. I might not look my best in them, but it was precious. Dad actually asked if I wanted to take a picture together. I could tell he was nervous about it, heck everyone had been on edge at the sight of my phone camera, but he still took all those photos with me. And even if most of my printed photos were later into our fun time, this one was special, just because dad tried.

Plus, my eyes were a little red from the tears. The dark rings under both our eyes went perfectly together.

I yelped slightly as I bumped into someone.

“Hey! Watch where you- Oh! My Angel, excuse me.” I looked up in confusion at Ice Wolf, who was busy straightening out his fur. Why was he looking so… brushed?…. Why was  _ everyone _ looking so brushed? Well maybe not everyone, but most monsters looked like they had at least taken care of their looks. Some seemed to have picked out their most dapper or intimidating outfit, heck, even the young monsters were showing off their shiny scales and fur to one another.

What even was going on? Was there a holiday or something I hadn’t heard about? I quickly started jogging home, just in case.

I was sure something was going on once we got home. Normally, it was just dad, Paps, Flowey, Toriel and I at home. But as soon as I opened the door I heard Alphys’ scratchy murmuring from the living room. As soon as I entered it, I was also greeted by Undyne’s: “WELCOME BACK, WIMP!” making every monster's head swing towards me.

I looked between everyone's faces carefully, noticing Flowey had also attached himself to the spikes on the back of Sans’ vertebra.

“Papyrus, Toriel, shouldn’t you still be at work today?”

The queen of monsters’ eyes softened, but she barely opened her mouth before Papyrus spoke up.

“NORMALLY WE WOULD, BUT SANS HAS MADE US AWARE OF QUITE THE PREDICAMENT.”

I swung my head towards said skeleton, who looked all to pleased with himself, even if he was sweating slightly. Nervousness started to brew at the pit of my stomach. He told them? But…but. What where they gonna think of me? Were they gonna laugh at me for being so pathetic? Over some pictures? I clenched the ones I had close to my chest.

It looked as if Papyrus was going to say more, but an icy glare from Toriel shut him up. The monster I considered my kinda-mom turned to me with a soft smile and walked over. There seemed to be some kind of hastily wrapped bundle in her hands…in fact, most of them seemed to be holding something.

Toriel knelt down in front of me slowly, the bundle pressed into her lap for now.

“My child, I…understand.”

Slowly, she pulled out something from underneath the bundle, showing it to me. My eyes went wide. A picture. I saw her and Asgore, standing with straight, proud backs. But despite the formal appearance they were close together and their smiles were fond. Each of them had a hand on the shoulder of two much smaller forms. Asgore was patting the head of a grinning Asriel holding a bunch of flowers. And Toriel was putting her soothing hand on the shoulder of a much smaller, human child, burying their face shyly between the petals of her own bouquet.

Chara.

The photo was old, cracked slightly on the edges and yellowing, but it was obviously well cared for. I looked back to Toriel, who gently brushed the image with her thumb with a far off look in her eyes.

“Sadly, the tradition of photography died out, not too long after this was taken. After that most monsters grew up wary of being captured doing something that could be used against them.”

She took a deep, grounding breath before her eyes focused again and turned to me.

“Sans and I explained the situation as best as we could. And, well, we all have our way of dealing with the fleetingness of life and the mortality of our loved ones. If this is your way, we embrace that.”

Okay, kind of a morbid way of thinking about that, but-

Before my thoughts go further, Toriel took the paper of the objects she was holding to reveal…a scrapbook. And several simple picture frames.

“ISN’T THAT COOL?!” Undyne suddenly roared into my ear. “Well, not right now. Apparently, you have to make them cool yourself!”

“AND WE BROUGHT DECORATIONS!” Papyrus added, nearly shoving a box into my hands while Undyne did the same. I opened each with a thumb to look inside to see stickers. Of sharks, and fishbones, and normal bones, and skulls, and so much more.

Undyne tapped my shoulder, voice a little more subdued.

“Also, Onion-san put some shells in there somewhere.”

“AND METTATON SOME GLITTER…THOUGH I WOULD HAVE PERSONALLY CHOSEN DIFFERENT COLORS.” Paps added.

By this time I was already gaping like a fish on dry land, and both Sans and Alphys were still grinning at me. It was the lizard who stepped forwards first, shaking a little though I couldn't tell if she was nervous or excited.

“S-sans came up with the idea, but most of it was m-my engineering.” Oh, excited apparently, since she wasn’t stuttering as much.

She handed me a little carton box, the top already loosened up. So I just lifted it while she wrung her hands with the widest, crooked grin. Inside was what looked like a little black…camera! It was barely any bigger than my phone, made from dark gray metal and with a screen taking up the entire back. On top, there were a push button, a slide button, and a tiny dial. Alphys’ claw suddenly invaded my vision.

“I got the highest quality lens I had in stock and the shutter is lightning fast. You’d have to be moving really fast to get a blurry picture. A-and I also made sure to put as many pixels into the display as I could fit with as efficient battery power as possible. But believe me, the p-p-pictures have a far better resolution than the camera can show.”

The grin on her face was almost manic. I knew she was anxious about her work, she hadn’t put her skills to their full use since finishing Mettaton’s body. But I think over accomplishing in something so…mundane, was really boosting her ego at the moment.

“It can be charged the same way as your phone, it runs on b-both electricity and magic. The zoom and menu are on the display, it’s touch-screen. T-the little slidey is for power, the push is for pictures, b-b-but _ this _ . R-r-read me the options for a moment”

She insistently tapped the dial, her tail starting to lash slightly as she got more excited. So I did as she asked.

“Photo…video…panorama…GIF?”

She let out an almost crazy little laugh, and I could see slight tears coming to her eyes. Not unusual with how hard it was for her to control her emotions. Her voice climbed to a higher pitch.

“Remember that one m-magic movie you showed me? It gave me some inspiration for possible ways to combine magic and technology. This is just pure el-electronics, but I couldn’t help myself.”

she pulled open her coat and took out what looked like another picture frame. It was dark and metal though, the same materials as the camera, including what looked like another black screen. In the middle of the bottom border, there was a little heart.

Alphys pressed said heart down. With a little ‘beep-beep’ the heart colored blue and the screen turned on with a soft glow. Alphys’ trademark logo flashed briefly on the screen before it shifted to something that looked like a more stylish version of one of those windows on the computer, showing the files it held. For now, there was only one, titled ’We don’t just tolerate you’. She tapped it, and the file opened to show a picture…of all of them.

Sans, Papyrus, Flowey, Toriel, Undyne, and Alphys. All of them were huddled together in the frame, each of them smiling in their own awkward or vaguely threatening way. Each also had a hand in the air as if waving. Alphys slowly pushed the frame into my hands

“Is…is this one of those digital picture frames?”

The corners of Alphys’ mouth curled up way too wide, showing off even the roots of her crooked and broken teeth.

“Not quite.”

A trembling claw came over, quickly clicking down the little heart again. The heart instantly turned red and the light behind slowly started to pulse. And the picture in the frame started to move.

Each of them was waving at me. Sans with his lazy finger wiggles, Toriel with her calm, small waves. Flowey didn’t exactly wave, but he was swaying around lightly in a soothing manner, just like that first time he met me and tried to calm my nerves. Alphys’ movements were small and stiff as if she was embarrassed, while Paps and Undyne in the back were flailing their arms around as if it was a competition.

I felt tears coming to my eyes. The action was answered by a sharp squeal from the scaled scientist.

“T-that’s what the GIF option is for. The camera will detect a little loop and send that to the frame as soon as it’s within 10 feet of it. And then you can just let whatever you like play on it for your enjoyment.”

“and uh,” Sans shuffled forward, kneeling down to my eye level. “goldy here convinced me to take him underground to visit ol’ satan himself. he did most of the talking though.”

Sans ignored Flowey’s short glare as his hand briefly dipped into his jacket and pulled out an envelope. It seemed to be made out of parchment, with the name ‘Asgore’ scrawled in elegant, but slightly shaky handwriting. I could see Toriel glare at it as if she wanted to snatch it away and burn it.

I took it from his hands gingerly, a little nervous what our would-be murderer had sent back. As I turned it over and opened up the top flap, I found it was not quite what I was expecting.

Tiny figures, made from actual  _ freaking _ gold leaf and embedded with tiny Waterfall crystal. They were shaped like tiny flowers, teacups, and a few crowns. From the way they were slightly irregular, crinkled, or some cups missing ears, I had a sneaking suspicion they weren’t some kind of mass production.

“I said mom wanted to give you a scrapbook, for more traditional photo fun. Dad wanted to coordinate with that.” Flowey mumbled in a soft voice.

Toriel let out an irritated sigh at the flower’s words, yet the next words out of her mouth were: “I guess The King does have his moments.”

She hated the old goat. But, it was probably a painful reminder of the man she originally fell in love with. I quickly shuffled the envelope with the rest of the decorations into one of the boxes.

“ah yeah, for scrapbooking purposes, there’s also a printer and paper laminator under your desk now. sorry for making you walk all the way to the Librarby to get those,” he pointed at the pictures I had dropped at some point. “but we needed something to stall for time.” He punctuated his sentence with a devious smirk and a wink.

I instantly threw my arms around my guardian’s neck and latched on, sobbing anew. He stiffened at first, but after his paranoid brain figured out he wasn’t being attacked he easily returned the embrace.

He… he’d been organizing all of that? So quickly? Just for me? And the others just rolled with it too. I had been so scared they would think I was being childish.

I had been told so many times not to be so pathetic, to man up. People had it much worse than I. People who actually had something to do with their time and still didn’t get what they deserved. What about us?!

I rubbed my face against Sans’ jacket, trying to wipe off the uncomfortable memory of a stinging pain on my cheek.

And yet here I was, with people who actually knew true pain. Creatures who had known, poverty, hunger, fear, and violence. And yet from the moment they declared me family they had never shoved away how I was feeling in favor of their own past.

Sure, when Undyne saw I couldn’t lift something she would drag me on these harrowing trainings with only Papyrus as buffer. And at the embassy Toriel would tell me not to show fear and hold my head high. But any progress was met with cheers and shoulder rides, and my tears with soft paws. It was something I couldn’t quite get used to, but a weight off my soul all the same.

Sans’ boney hand lightly patted my head.

“awww, don’t cry kiddo. Isn’t this making you happy? i could always take it back if you don’t like it.”

“NO.”

I said it just a little bit more harshly than I intended. But I could feel Sans’ deep, teasing chuckle shaking his frame.

“HEY! What about us?!”

“YES, WE CONTRIBUTED TO YOUR PRESENTS AS WELL!”

I laughed at my surrogate aunt and uncle’s outbursts, stretching out both my arms. Both monsters were instantly kneeling by my sides and wrapping their arms around both of us. After a second, I also felt Alphys, who didn’t quite like to be hugged, press herself to my back with her nose in my neck.

For being the first to complain about it though, Undyne wiggled out of our awkward penguin-huddle rather quickly.

“We’ll erhem, now that everything had been handed over, how about we go outside and START SHOOTING….some pictures?”

“Oh, that reminds me, my child,” I peeked up from Sans’ shoulder when Toriel spoke up. “Just in case we’ve been contacting the monsters around town, just to let them know they have no need to worry if they see you snapping away with your camera.”

She placed a furred paw to her mouth and chuckled lightly.

“It seems they took it quite a bit better than I initially suspected. They’re expecting you to come out and snap away as we speak. Shall we?”

Oh…oh now it made sense! That’s why everyone had suddenly been so concerned about how they looked. I wiggled a bit in Sans’ arms, he let go swiftly with another chuckle. I quickly gathered up all the things I got and dumped them on the table, so no one would walk on them. As soon as everything was secure and nothing would get crumpled, I grabbed my new camera and jogged to the front door.

The rest had already started to get ready. Toriel decided on her large purple and white shawl, while Papyrus was enviously eyeing Undyne’s leather jacket as he adjusted his own scarf to look more like a cape. Sans wasn’t there though. I felt my face starting to fall, until there was a tiny zap like static electricity next to me. Before I could fully turn towards it my own coat dropped lightly onto my head.

“bundle up kiddo. because i just know you’re gonna drag us around for hours.”

I pulled the fabric off of my head just in time to see Sans adjust his jacket over a distinctly clean sweater. Instantly my mood improved again. It was a small gesture, but it meant a lot coming from him. Oh, and he actually tied the laces of sneakers.

“hey now, don’t start grinning before you’re having fun kid. people might think you’re planning something devious.”

Giant claws were as always surprisingly soft as he ruffled them through my hair, and I latched on to his leg as I heard the doorknob turn.

 

* * *

Holy fucking hell what a day!

I fell back into bed with a tired snarl. Hours. Literal fucking HOURS! It was completely dark out by the time we got home. So much stuff organized, so many monsters to talk to, including the former fucking king. Even if the dude realized he’d been wrong, he still looked at me like I was a traitor to the crown. And then being dragged around every which way by an overexcited kid. I think I hadn’t walked that much in a day ever since I was a kid.

But DAMN was it worth it. I’d go through literal hell again for that smile. My legs might be aching and I’m pretty sure I had worn down another few millimeters off my menisci, but overall it wasn’t such a bad day. Far from it.

I lightly brushed a claw along the wooden rectangle in my hands. I’m pretty sure I had glitter between my phalanges. Better wash my hands before-

“Food is ready! Wash up and come down to eat.”

Ah, there it was. After a few seconds I could hear tiny feet quickly race past my door, eager to follow Toriel's voice and get dinner after their busy day. Damn, where did they get the energy after all the running and jumping they did? I bet their room might look worse than mine now.

I heaved myself back up into a sitting position with a mighty sigh. I stretched my arms and legs for good measure. In the same motion, I swiftly plopped my newly framed picture on the windowsill.

It was hella blue, covered in glitter and the kid had gone ham with the little skull and bone stickers (and there was a gold leaf flower there as well, though I ignored that in favor of the actual golden flower). Inside the frame itself, Frisk's enormous smile and flushed cheeks were a definite eyecatcher. Squishing my cheek against their head there was me, smiling tiredly, but trying to match their enthusiasm. Underneath my head, Flowey was nudging his head against my yaw to get into the frame as well, and in the back corner Papyrus popped up just in time to actually look nice in the frame.

Yeah, no regrets here.


End file.
